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As
part of their routine lectures, members of the academic staff of the
Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences held the 6th edition of their
lecture series on Tuesday June 23, 2015 at the faculty hall.

The three presentations which were tagged; Towards a Viable Local Government System in Nigeria, Youth Participation in Rural Development Programme and Influence of Women Literacy & Quality of Basic Education on Antenatal Care Utilisation were delivered by Mr. FelixChukwu (GST Unit), Rev. Fr. Anthony Adebayo(Sociology Department) and Mr. Blessing I. Babalolarespectively.

Mr.
Felix, who spoke on the relevance of local government as a tier of
government, emphasized the need to bring governance closer to the people
which, according to him, would foster rapid rural development. He
described the overall objective of the paper as one that sought ways of
repositioning local government systems at the grass root level. He
identified undue interference by both the federal and state governments,
challenges associated with allocation and equitable distribution of
revenue and misrepresentation of local government interests as some of
the factors that have bedeviled and hindered sustainable local
government system in Nigeria. He, however, submitted that constitutional
provisions guiding the operations of local governments in Nigeria could
be strengthened through vigorous amendment to reflect their functions,
powers and management.

He
recommended that INEC should take over the election of local government
functionaries from the state electoral bodies as a panacea to the
problems bedevilling this arm of government.

The
second paper delivered by Rev. Anthony Adebayo pointed out the
increasing need of youth participation in agriculture which he described
as catalyst for national development. The clergy, who doubles as a
lecture, further described agriculture as financially rewarding venture
which could also serve as one of the remedies for the ever–growing youth
unemployment. He stated that agriculture could help reduce wide-spread
poverty, and stressed the need for agricultural practices to be made
lucrative so as to elicit active youth participation in helping to meet
the world food need. Rev. Adebayo made recommendations that government
should embark on educational and campaign awareness in agriculture,
provide adequate training, ensure timely fertilizer availability,
improved seedlings, land security as well as sustained budgetary
provisions for mechanized agricultural practices. He also suggested that
government should mandate banks and other corporate organizations,
through legislation, to set aside a percentage of their profit for
agriculture and rural development. Imbibing these recommendations
according to Rev. Adebayo would help foster a virile national cum rural
development.

Mr.
Blessing Babalola spoke on the essence of antenatal care services
utilization through women’s repeated exposure to quality basic education
practices. He disclosed that his findings had revealed that women only
made use of antenatal care based on their recognition of its importance.

He
stressed the need for more sensitization, adding that improvement in
education on current sexual related health issues would impart largely
on antenatal care utilization.

Dean,
Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities, Prof. R.O. Bakare, in
rounding off the event appreciated all faculty members who had availed
themselves of the opportunity of attending the seminar. Some prominent
faculty members present included Chairman of Seminar series, Dr. B.O
Adeseye (representing the Chairman of Faculty Seminar Committee, Dr.
Alexander Eze), Associate Dean, Faculty of Humanities and Social
Sciences, Prof. Omolayo, Head, GST Unit, Dr. Rufus Akindola and Dr. W.
A. Oyedokun who moderated activities.

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